Spain's Constitutional Court accepts the Tibet case appeal lodged by the CAT.Hope remains for the victims and for a judicial system that does not give in to the impunity of the big powers.

After a wait of over a year and a half, the Spanish Constitutional Court has finally accepted the appeal filed by the CAT and co-plaintiffs Thubten Wangchen and the Fundación Casa del Tíbet after the case of the Tibetan genocide was closed in 2014. The Constitutional Court's Fourth Appeal Court considers that "said appeal involves matters of special constitutional relevance (Article 50.1 of the LOTC, Constitutional Court Law) as the possible breach of fundamental law denounced therein could derive from law STC 155/2009; FJ 2 c."

As a result of the Audiencia Nacional's order to issue international arrest warrants against former leaders of the Chinese Communist Party - including Jiang Zemin and Li Peng - in 2013, the Spanish Government went down on its knees under the pressure from Beijing and ended up revoking the law of universal jurisdiction on 10 March 2014. The Tibet case was immediately closed, sparking a chain reaction of closures of other cases (Guantanamo, Couso, Freedom Fleet against Israeli authorities, Falun Gong, etc.)

In a ruling on 6 May 2015, the Supreme Court ratified the decision to close the case, and it was against this verdict that an appeal was filed in the Constitutional Court, as the plaintiffs believed that the legal revocation of universal jurisdiction breached several precepts of the Spanish Constitution.
José Elías Esteve Moltó, the chief lawyer and author of the Tibet cases, commented: "The Constitutional Court's acceptance of the appeal opens the door once again to hope, not only for the Tibetan victims, but also for other serious conflicts that had been abandoned. What is more, the fact that the judges will debate in depth the controversial cutting of the wings of the law of universal jurisdiction, reopens the debate on whether international law can be relegated to second place, particularly when the domestic legal reform was supported publicly by an autocratic government and justified by a supposed and unquestionable interest of the defence of Spain´s public debt."

Alan Cantos, director of the Comité de Apoyo al Tíbet, declared: "Not only is there now hope that the Tibetan victims and those of other cases will not be left high and dry, but there is also hope that national and international shame will be alleviated, and universal justice will be re-established in Spain, where its application was exemplary and admired. We must learn to say NO to China before they drag us down in their highly predictable decline. Our relationship with the giant cannot be that of "Facebook friends", a euphemism to sell ourselves and to sell anything including our basic principles."

Over the next few months the Constitutional Court judges will decide whether the reform of universal jurisdiction is unconstitutional, which would make it necessary to reopen the case, or whether, on the contrary, the case should be closed definitively, in which case the CAT's only recourse left would be to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.